


Florida Man Falls in Love

by landmarked



Category: The Office (US)
Genre: M/M, but they gay, nothing is romantic about this, the pairing we deserved, this is a result of peer pressure
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-21
Updated: 2020-07-21
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:47:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,112
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25414171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/landmarked/pseuds/landmarked
Summary: Gabe is being sent back to Florida. Jeb is here, for some reason. Assume that they're gay. Good for them.
Relationships: Jeb Schrute/Gabe Lewis
Kudos: 9





	Florida Man Falls in Love

gabe was seething. rightfully so as, right now, he was having his whole life stripped away from him. 

the atmosphere in the office that day was a little more tense than usual, as the regional manager position was currently up for grabs. the interviewing process was a little intensive, especially by gabe’s standards, because nothing mattered to him today. all he could see was red. rage boiled in the pit of his stomach, and he was willing to stop at nothing to achieve justice for himself. today, he was uncontainable. today, he was hopeless.

and just as his life was reaching a new low for him after several emotional breakdowns and many interpersonal issues with other employees at the scranton branch of dunder mifflin, jo bennet had decided that gabe would be returning to florida indefinitely. away from erin. away from the life he’d managed to scrape together in scranton. this was less than ideal. 

he didn’t understand why he felt so conflicted over this news, though. it wasn’t like he had anything (anyone) to stay for anyway. his relationship with the entire branch was less than optimal after michael had practically set him up for social failure. he always pretended not to mind that, though, as long as somebody liked him. and now he didn’t even have that. so maybe getting away from scranton was a good thing. 

as he miserably packed away his things at his desk, he heard the familiar, strong footsteps of dwight, as he was presumably pacing around the area near his desk. he was muttering either furiously or excitedly to himself. a glance behind the cubicle divider confirmed his suspicions - he was on the phone. but then again, this was dwight, and it wouldn’t surprise gabe in the slightest if he saw him pacing around and talking to himself. it was the little nuances like this he figured he’d miss about scranton. or maybe the bittersweetness of his current situation was making him view everything through a rose-tinted lens despite the time he spent here being anything but beautiful to him. 

“no, jeb, i will not come outside to watch you pull into the parking lot-” a pause. gabe listened closely. “i don’t care if you were sitting on a giraffe who was sitting inside your fancy sports car, i have a job that i need to be doing and quite frankly, you’re interrupting it.”

gabe heard dwight sigh in defeat and hang up the phone. usually he wouldn’t eavesdrop - especially on dwight - but he figured at this point he had nothing else to lose if no one respected him anyway.

when dwight abruptly turned to face him, he was not surprised nor scared. he felt like a madman who had nothing on the line. he felt like he could kill god. 

“what?” dwight spat. gabe did not flinch. gabe wasn’t even emoting. he felt as if he was facing off with a man he’d never met.

“who was that? on the phone,” gabe asked.

“none of your business,” dwight started, looking slightly offended. and then: “that was my brother, jebediah schrute. he’s on his way to the office right now for... an undisclosed reason.”

“cool,” gabe remarked, turning back to his desk and pushing the remaining pens and pencils into a cardboard box.

“why are you packing?” 

“oh, jo’s sending me back to florida.”

dwight snorted, “enjoy that.”

surely enough, moments later, jeb schrute made his grand entrance into the parking lot, and dwight smirked with pride as the employees who weren’t tied up in becoming regional manager flocked to the window. he knew jeb’s car was ridiculous, but it was also a sign of class and success. something that clearly ran within the schrute bloodline. 

and then gabe unintentionally crossed paths with jeb, as he was approaching the elevator to take another box to his car. 

“movin out?” jeb had caught his attention, as gabe’s eyes had previously been cast down to the ground in quiet reflection. he looked across at him. his bright curly hair and cheerful blue eyes seemed like a breath of fresh air to him. he had a hard time wrapping his head around the fact that this was dwight’s brother.

“yeah, kinda. you must be jebediah.” gabe awkwardly extended a hand, balancing his box on his now raised knee. jeb took it and shook it firmly, reinforcing gabe’s point of balance when he felt him almost tip to the side.

“jeb is sufficient. you know dwight?”

“yeah, i work- worked with him.” gabe stood upright, letting go of jeb’s hand. jeb shoved both hands into his pockets, looking gabe up and down.

“you get fired or somethin’?” 

“no! no. just being reassigned to florida.”

“florida! that’s one hell of a place. couldn’t be me though.”

“yeah, it’s not for everyone.”

“is marijuana legal there?”

“i don’t think so… it’s not even legal here…?” 

jeb was suddenly very serious, taking a step closer to gabe and lowering his voice. “oh, i know.” he looked around, suddenly paranoid, fixating on a security camera. “we shouldn’t be discussing this.”

“then don’t? you are under no obligation to be talking to me right now.”

“oh, thank god.” he clapped his hands together rather obnoxiously, and it suddenly made sense to gabe that this was dwight’s brother. “about the first part. you’re cool. what was your name?”

“gabe.”

“gabe! i trust you. i’m glad dwight gets to work with you.”

“thanks?” 

jeb placed his hands on gabe’s face, and gabe noticed the glint in his eyes. he felt him practically stare into his soul and suddenly he felt the most known he’d ever felt in his entire life. maybe it was the physical contact - something gabe had been very deprived of over his lifetime. maybe it was the proximity of their faces. maybe something had just awoken from within him. he felt unable to respond to whatever it was jeb was doing to him. he also couldn’t escape this position, as both of his hands were occupied.

he whispered urgently: “they need you here. you’re too good for florida, florida man.” he patted his cheeks before proceeding to trot off towards the office, where gabe could hear him making a grand entrance. 

gabe had to put his box down as he began to comprehend the interaction he'd just had. nothing about it made sense, which sort of made sense, considering jeb was a schrute. but also, gabe needed something that didn't make sense. he needed to have a reason to change the trajectory of his life, even when it made no sense to.

maybe it was worth hanging around for a little while longer.

**Author's Note:**

> i really dont know im so sorry


End file.
